OMG, Fr. Jonathan Morris, the one true Fox News Catholic clergy in residence is not in agreement with Pope Bill O'Reilly's call for a new *crusade (or is it "jihad?") in the Middle East. OMG.

During yesterday's Fox & Friends discussion of Ash Wednesday, Elisabeth Hasselbeck asked Morris "are we in a holy war." Amazingly, in what appeared to be ever to subtle dig on O'Reilly, Morris said "I really don't think it's helpful to call it a holy war because all sorts of connotations can be brought up and misunderstandings."

Unlike O'Reilly, who is just salivating over the idea of killing Muslims for Christ, Morris added "that we never need to kill in the name of God, never, ever, ever."  He did acknowledge that "people are being persecuted because of their faith...and there's a very real danger that Christians that Christians will be wiped out from the whole Middle East."

He said that "you could say yes a holy war is people being killed in the name of God on one side, yes people are using the name of God kill innocents." He added, however, that "as Christians, as anybody with good will, people will have to say we're never going to kill in the name of God." He emphasized the importance of the protection of "the innocent" and urged that the "unjust aggression" be stopped.

Interesting. I assumed that other Fox programming would back up O'Reilly's desire to avenge Christians. In this segment, Fr. Morris clearly disagreed and kudos to him for doing so. I suspect other clergy are appalled; but O'Reilly probably won't be quoting them. (Where is Fox Cardinal Dolan on this?)

But seriously, inquiring minds want to know if Fox's ratings pontiff will show Fr. Morris the error of his ways! After all, Bill O'Reilly is divinely inspired so it's all good....

*The original crusaders got a free ticket to heaven for their troubles. What goodies will O'Reilly be doling out?